Jeg fikk satt på et nytt plaster, og etterpå så jeg at den gamle gardinstangen lå ved siden av jakken med ødelagt glidelås.

Fikk satt på is a very common Norwegian pattern: få + past participle. It often means get something done or have something done.

So:

• Jeg satte på et nytt plaster = I put on a new plaster myself
• Jeg fikk satt på et nytt plaster = I got a new plaster put on / I had a new plaster applied

The sentence does not focus on who did it. It focuses on the result: a new plaster ended up being put on.

Also, satt på comes from sette på, which here means put on / attach.

Here et plaster means a Band-Aid / sticking plaster / adhesive bandage.

It is not the building material used on walls. Norwegian plaster commonly means the small adhesive thing you put on a cut.

Because plaster is a neuter noun in Norwegian.

That means:

• et plaster = a plaster
• et nytt plaster = a new plaster

The adjective has to agree with the noun, so ny becomes nytt with a neuter singular noun.

Compare:

• en ny jakke = a new jacket
• et nytt plaster = a new plaster

This is the normal Norwegian pattern called double definiteness.

When a noun is definite and also has an adjective, Norwegian usually uses:

• a definite article before the adjective
• and a definite ending on the noun

So:

• gardinstangen = the curtain rod
• den gamle gardinstangen = the old curtain rod

This is different from English, where you only need one definite marker: the old curtain rod.

It comes from the compound noun gardinstang:

• gardin = curtain
• stang = rod / pole

So gardinstang literally means curtain rod.

Then you add the definite singular ending -en:

• gardinstang = curtain rod
• gardinstangen = the curtain rod

Norwegian uses compound nouns like this all the time.

Because Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb normally comes in the second position.

In this clause, etterpå is placed first for emphasis:

• og etterpå så jeg ...

Here the order is:

1. etterpå
2. så
3. jeg

The conjunction og does not count as the first sentence element for this rule.

So this is the normal pattern after a fronted adverb:

• Etterpå så jeg ... = Afterward, I saw ...

Here så is the past tense of se: saw.

It does not mean then in this sentence.

That can be confusing, because Norwegian så can also be an adverb meaning then / so in other contexts. But here it is clearly the verb, because it appears in the verb position after etterpå:

• etterpå så jeg = afterward I saw

At means that and introduces a subordinate clause:

• så jeg at den gamle gardinstangen lå ...
• I saw that the old curtain rod was lying ...

In Norwegian, at is very natural here and usually expected after verbs like see, notice, think, say, and similar verbs when they introduce a full clause.

So så jeg at ... is the normal way to say I saw/noticed that ...

Lå is the past tense of ligge, which means lie or be lying.

Norwegian often uses specific position verbs instead of a general verb like to be:

• ligge = lie
• stå = stand
• sitte = sit

So den gamle gardinstangen lå ved siden av jakken means the curtain rod was lying there, not just vaguely was there.

Using lå sounds more natural and more descriptive for an object resting horizontally or on a surface.

Ved siden av is a fixed expression meaning beside or next to.

In the sentence:

• ved siden av jakken = next to the jacket

It works like a prepositional phrase pointing to the thing used as the reference point.

Examples:

• ved siden av meg = next to me
• ved siden av huset = next to the house
• ved siden av jakken = next to the jacket

It most naturally describes the jacket.

So:

• jakken med ødelagt glidelås = the jacket with a broken zipper

Grammatically, a med phrase often attaches to the noun right before it unless context suggests otherwise. Here, common sense also helps: a jacket can have a zipper, but a curtain rod normally cannot.

So the natural reading is that the jacket had the broken zipper.

Both are possible, but med ødelagt glidelås is a very natural compact descriptive phrase in Norwegian.

It works a bit like saying:

• with broken zipper
• meaning with a broken zipper

Norwegian often omits the article in this kind of descriptive phrase after med, especially when the noun is being used more as a characteristic than as a newly introduced individual object.

So:

• jakken med ødelagt glidelås = the jacket with a broken zipper

And glidelås means zipper.